St. Martin Canal Cruises

Le canal Saint-Martin

By Durant Imboden

There's hardly a visitor to Paris
who hasn't heard of the Seine, but the St. Martin Canal--a.k.a.
le
canal Saint-Martin--is a different story. Although it was built in 1825 as
part of a waterway system that was ordered up by Napoleon Bonaparte, most
English-speaking tourists have never heard of the canal--despite the fact that
it connects to the Seine within walking distance of the Opéra Bastille and the
Marais.

ABOVE: A Paris Canal boat, Le Conotier,
at its berth in the Parc de la Villette.

The St. Martin Canal is well worth a few hours of your time--both on foot and on
an excursion boat of
Paris Canal
or Canauxrama, two companies that offer
several departures a day in each direction. In this article, we describe
cruising with Paris Canal, but either company is worth considering.

During your cruise, you'll travel along a narrow canal, under old-fashioned
pedestrian bridges, through a series of locks, and underneath the Place de la
Bastille in a 19th Century barge tunnel. A live narration in French and English
will describe what you're seeing, and you can explore the Parc de la Villette
with its City of Sciences, Géode, and themed gardens before or after your
trip.